01 · Bug, on this disk

Game over asks for a file called TITLE

When the last continue runs out, $0766 loads a file named TITLE at $C000 and jumps there. This disk has no file called TITLE: its title program is called LOADER. The load finds nothing, and the jump runs whatever the stage left at $C000, which is level map. On this disk the machine crashes there, with the program counter stuck at $C011, every time a game runs out of lives in the emulator. The original release may have had a file called TITLE; this copy is the only one checked.

02 · Cut content

Stage L4AX

The table of stage files ($1ACD) has fifteen names. Every A stage of levels 1, 2, 3 and 5 has an X stage beside it, the other half of the same map, reached through doors. Level 4 has a name for one, L4AX, and nothing else: no file on the disk, and no door in any stage leads there. Five stages also ask for a sprite file SP03 that the disk does not hold, while SP02 and SP23 are on the disk and no stage asks for them.

03 · Mechanic

The clock pays you in magazines

Every time the seconds digit of the clock reaches 0 or 5, $F424 adds a magazine. A minute on the game's clock gives twelve. When the clock reaches 0:00 you lose a life, and the next life starts with 9:00 on the clock instead of 5:00, until a door to a new stage (other than an X stage) sets it back to 5:00.

04 · Mechanic

Riggs jumps no higher than Murtaugh

Both jump tables rise 40 lines. Murtaugh's ($36A0) takes 32 frames and Riggs's ($36E2) 40. Riggs hangs in the air longer.

05 · Controls

P pauses, RESTORE does nothing

The P key pauses the game and P again unpauses it ($E12F). The NMI that RESTORE raises goes to a lone RTI ($EC65). The game reads both joystick ports at once, so either port plays.

06 · Mechanic

Two continues

After GAME OVER the game offers CONTINUE with a countdown from 9. Fire continues with full energy, 25 magazines and five minutes. The count of continues ($2865) starts at 2 and is never refilled.

07 · Leftovers

Code nothing calls

A version of the hazard that takes 5 energy instead of 10 ($113B), a routine that turns the background red ($2382), a patrol for an enemy type the game no longer has ($0FD7) and a third way for thugs to move ($E5DA) are all in the game's code, and nothing reaches them.

08 · Quirk

Sprites over the top of the map

The level map starts at $7D80, inside the sprite area. On stage 1A the sprite file SP90 loads after the map is built and covers the map's first 192 characters, the top row of the stage, with the boss's frames. Whether the camera ever shows that row was not checked.